ASS: The Astronomy Student Society

ASS is the astronomy department's officially recognized student group. Its primary purpose is to raise university funding for Thursday tea. The aim of this particular wiki page is to detail this complicated and often frustrating fundraising process. While the university is unlikely to significantly change this process, keep in mind that the details outlined on this page may not apply exactly in the future. Also keep in mind there are strict deadlines for when applications are due and a couple of hoops you must jump through before even submitting an application. See http://ga.berkeley.edu/funding/dates.php for for info.

In order to be eligible for university funding, ASS must be officially recognized by the Office of Student Life (OSL). ASS already exists in the OSL's database and it is assigned a “Group Status.” We are only eligible for Cal funding if our group status is “approved”.

In order for our group status to be approved, four astronomy grad students need to register as ASS signatories. This process must be repeated every semester*.

All interactions with the OSL can be performed online at:

http://students.berkeley.edu/osl/studentorganizations.asp

1. In order to become a signatory you must first pass the online OSL signatory quiz (click on Signatory Orientation & Quiz).
2. Upon passing the quiz, you can register as a signatory for ASS by clicking on Become a Signatory.
3. To verify ASS' status, click on Verify Organization Status.
4. Finally, in the event that any ASS info in the OSL database needs to be changed (e.g. our address, if Campbell is torn down), click on Update Organization Info. You must be a signatory to perform any changes*

*I think…

The Graduate Assembly (GA) provides many Cal grad student groups (both social and academic) with funding and a variety of other services.

In order to be eligilbe for funding, three things must be true:

1. ASS must be approved by the Office of Student Life (see above).
2. At least one member of ASS (typically the member in charge of liasing with the GA) is required to undergo a GA Funding Workshop session and an OSL Funding Workshop session. If you have already undergone the training, you may need to do it again.
3. The Funding Application must be completed and submitted on time!

The GA website has everything you'll need to accomplish 2 and 3:

http://ga.berkeley.edu/funding.php

Note that the GA website tends to undergo changes rather frequently: this link may not be valid forever. If this is the case, just use google and look through the GA website for the word “funding.”

The GA is in Anthony Hall, south-west of Campbell. You can't miss it – there's a huge Pelican on the front lawn.

The GA and OSL funding orientation meetings tend to be relatively short (about an hour or so). They are offered regularly throughout the year. For a schedule, visit the GA website.

• The workshops are held at the GA Offices.
• You must tell the GA that you'll be coming 24 hours before the meeting by e-mailing ga_advisors@berkeley.edu

Coming soon!

Coming Soon!

The GA rarely provides us with sufficient funding to support tea for an entire semester. We typically also rely on grad student/professor “donations.”

Recommended donations (per semester) come out to:

• Graduate Students: $5
• Post-Docs: $10
• Faculty: $15

Whoever is in charge of tea funding is expected to keep track of who has donated and who has not. This practice has, in the past, been used to gently remind members of the Campbell Hall community to make their recommendations. I believe an incident involving faculty names inscribed on cupcakes took place once….

If, for some reason, the GA funding and these donations are insufficient to reimburse tea providers the tea funding point person can ask the department (usually Bora) to provide a reimbursement. This should be avoided as much as possible.